Joseph Obeng Opuni, a fourth Year Medical Student [September 6, 2019. Cause of Death: Suicide_Found dead in his room]. Faustina Dotse, a stylist [J
Joseph Obeng Opuni, a fourth Year Medical Student [September 6, 2019. Cause of Death: Suicide_Found dead in his room].
Faustina Dotse, a stylist [January 20, 2021. Cause of Death: Suicide_Allegedly left an admission note of her unfaithfulness toward her husband]
Constable Yelnona Eugene, National Protection Unit, Accra [February 1, 2021. Cause of Death: Suicide_Gunshot wound to the head]
Kweku Boateng Preprah, a level 200 student of University of Education, Winneba [April 7, 2021. Cause of Death: Suicide_Allegedly found washed ashore]
Leticia Kyere Pinamang, a final year student of Miracle Junior High School [May 18, 2021. Cause of Death: Suicide_a ‘pathologist’ ruled she died of suffocation]
As should be obvious, the possible time murder is accounted for in Ghana is the point at which the offender is either caught in the act, admits after the fact or is accounted for by an observer/witness. Each and every other death-related revelation or discovery are tragically delegated “Self-destruction” or “Suicide”.
I invest energy to watching narratives on how Crimes are *Detected and Investigated* in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States of America. What is more, the waiting inquiry I pose to myself each time I watch these narratives is “Why can’t this be done in my part of the world or country?”
Crime is a global phenomenon: a concept society passionately abhors. This is why authorities, nations or states, over millennia, have made statutory laws to either punish guilty parties or to prevent people from willfully committing acts typically considered socially hurtful, explicitly characterized and prohibited. I trust it is against this backdrop that Law Enforcement Agencies are established in each nation or state across the globe. For instance, in Ghana, there are the Ghana Police Service, Boarder Guard Unit, Narcotics Control Board and the Ghana Immigration Service.
The Ghana Police Service, especially, is the fundamental law enforcement agency entrusted under the Police Service Act, Act 350 of 1970; Section 1_Functions of the Service (1) “It shall be the DUTY of the Police Service to prevent and *DETECT CRIME*, to apprehend offenders, and to maintain public order and the safety of persons and property.”
At whatever point I read news about the revelation of dead bodies in Ghana, and the cause for same are predicated on ‘Suicide’; I feel incensed: not on the grounds that self destruction cannot be the reason for deaths in Ghana or Ghanaians cannot be self-destructive or suicidal. It is the speed of closure on such cases that makes me sick.
The simple reality that somebody was discovered dead on the coastline, found with a self-destruction (Suicide) note, found at the trajectory of a storey building or discovered suspended on a rope to a tree, a fan or a rafter does not affirm the instance of self-destruction: until a Medical Examiner, a Coroner or a *Forensic Pathologist* rules the manner-of-death as “Suicide”. It is not for a police officer to say, by only taking a gander at an expired body in whatever posture, that the cause of death was suicide.
Usually, one would read in the news, “Further investigations will be directed into the situation”. Nonetheless, 2-5years later and there will be no report or official statement from the Police Service: on progress into their supposed “Further investigation”.
I dread that, murderers have found an egregious method or way to elude ‘detectives’ in Ghana: on account of a failed system and the lack of proper Crime Scene Investigators or Forensic Detectives.
Now and again I inquire, “Would they say they are aware that crime locations or scenes can be staged?” “Would they say they are mindful that it is their sworn duty to DETECT CRIME and apprehend offenders?”
Crime detection encircles distinguishable phases: the *detection that a crime has been committed* (through proper Forensic Investigation), the identification of a suspect through crafted cross examination or interrogation (in some cases) and the collection of sufficient evidence to either pronounce the case as *Suicide or Homicide* (wherein case the guilty party will be arraigned under the steady gaze of a court of competent jurisdiction). I am uncertain, if the previously mentioned phases are painstakingly continued in the determination of the causes of deaths pronounced by the police service or reported in the media as Suicides in Ghana.
When I lost a friend on April 7, 2021, I tried to push harder for proper investigations to be launched into his death. Because the circumstances that surrounded his passing were unusual and off-kilter. But I was told by a police officer, who is enjoined to “Detect Crime” that he could judge, from his experience, that my friend’s cause of death was by suicide: by “simply” looking at his body. I was utterly broken, yet, could not do anything to unravel the true cause of his passing. How somebody could walk a few kilometers to end it all at a seashore, without wearing clothes and sandals still bewilders me today.
Well, I cannot accuse the Ghana Police Service, so much more than I have already, for being ineffectual in Suicide Investigation. It is common knowledge that its criminal investigators are not adequately trained and equipped by the nation: to take up such arduous tasks as investigating suicides. And we live in a country whose leaders find it pleasurable to plunder and divide its assets among friends and family: rather than investing in enterprises such as Forensic Science, Education, Health, Infrastructure and Industrialization.
In a nation of over 30million citizens, I dare to say there are less than 20 *Forensic Pathologists* across our district, municipal, regional and referral hospitals: to assist the Ghana Police Service in unraveling the true cause of deaths purported to be by ‘Suicide’. And I question, in any case, if there are well trained Crime Scene Investigators here in Ghana.
It is 21st Century for the love of all that is holy! Where are the Forensic Pathologists? Where are the Forensic Anthropologists? Where are the Forensic Toxicologists? Without these Specialists, murderers will continue to walk uninhibitedly in our streets. We cannot compare ourselves to the West, and I am not suggesting that we should, but we can observe and learn from them.
There is a loud cry of distress from souls who were gruesomely murdered, and their deaths were made to look like ‘self-destruction’, but we cannot hear it. The dead, they say, do not speak. But with forensic science, forensic pathologists, anthropologists and toxicologists can offer voice to the dead; to uncover their killers. On the off chance that supposed Suicide deaths are appropriately explored or investigated in this country, the vast majority of them will end up being Homicides.
It is your sworn duty to DETECT CRIME and apprehend offenders, Ghana Police Service. Do not close suicide cases, premised on firsthand information received from relatives or persons who make such discoveries. An excessive number of Homicides are being named Suicides: consequent to the absence of Forensic Investigations and well-trained Crime Scene Investigators.
_Rest In Power, Kweku Boateng Preprah: April 7, 2021_
©️ SAMUEL K. LANCELOT DAH
WINNEBA-GHANA
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